Owners of swimming pools must maintain their pool to keep the water clean to maintain sanitary conditions, help maximize their swimming enjoyment and also prevent deterioration of the pool equipment. Many types of pool cleaners are commercially available for residential and commercial use including automated robotic cleaners, self-propelled cleaners and manually operated pool cleaners. The manually operated cleaners are usually less expensive than the robotic or self-propelled cleaners because they are less complex and simpler to manufacture. The manually operated cleaners require that an individual guide the cleaner over the surface of the pool, typically with the assistance of an extension pole or handle assembly.
One type of hand-held, manually operated pool cleaner that is commercially available for residential use is based on expired U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,393 to Pansini. The '393 patent discloses a submersible leaf vacuum cleaner which includes a housing and a filter bag serving as a collector for pool debris. The housing is supported by wheels and includes an annular flange or skirt and an open-ended tubular member or conduit, the bottom of which serves as an inlet and the upper portion serving as a discharge outlet. The housing further includes a water discharge ring to which a water supply hose is attached for delivery of pressurized water from a remote service. The housing may also have a handle attached. The ring is provided with a plurality of equi-distantly spaced water discharge orifices that are adapted to direct jets of water along alike paths, which are projected above the open upper end of conduit. The projections of the jets are in a spiraled pattern.
More specifically, in order to draw water from the pool through the inlet, an external pressurized water source, such as from a conventional garden hose, is attached to the housing, and the water from the garden hose flows into the open-ended tubular member or conduit via a plurality of discharge orifices, thereby providing a plurality of high pressure water jets into the conduit. The water jets are directed upwardly towards the discharge opening of the conduit. Because of the restricted flow of the water through the narrow discharge orifice of the jets, a Venturi effect is created by the high velocity, low pressure water flow. The low pressure zone draws water and any associated debris situated below the cleaner upwardly through the opening (inlet) and into the discharge conduit and filter bag. Although the water in the pool can be filtered by the prior art cleaner, such filtering is inefficient and expensive in terms of maneuverability, cleaning time and operating costs.
In particular, the necessity of using a garden hose from an external source to thereby induce a Venturi effect to draw pool water into the cleaner is inefficient and unwieldy to provide water. Residential water pressure is subject to unpredictable pressure drops and spikes from the main water supply or by actions induced by home owner while utilizing water at the home for other purposes, e.g., doing laundry, in-ground sprinkler systems, dishwashers, and the like. Thus, variations in water pressure can effect the operation of the cleaner and result in poor cleaning results and longer times to complete the manual cleaning of the pool. Accordingly, these inefficiencies increase the costs to operate the leaf vacuum cleaner. Further, the conventional garden hose when filled with water can be difficult to maneuver and is subject to kinking during the manual cleaning operation. Additionally, the required use of the garden hose with the cleaner results in the continuous addition of cold water to the pool, which can undesirably raise the water level height and lower the temperature of the pool water. The system is also wasteful of water, which may be a local environmental issue.
From the end user's perspective, the hose may not always be long enough to enable complete cleaning coverage of the pool. Adding extension hoses can be impractical as the added length can cause undesirable pressure drops, which diminish suction and cleaning of the pool. Accordingly, the end user must incur the additional expense of having to provide another local water supply closer to the pool. Further, end users have experienced poor performance with the cleaner while trying to maintain the cleaner in a position substantially parallel to the pool surface while maneuvering it with an extension pole, and at the same time with the garden hose dragging behind and resisting movement. As well, the user must connect to and disconnect the cleaner from the garden hose, which can become an annoyance every time the pool is being cleaned. In particular, the user may often experience the tedious and time consuming maintenance steps of always having to retrieve, uncoil, and attach the hose to the cleaner, and when finished, the reverse process of detaching, recoiling and storing the hose must then be performed. These time consuming maintenance steps can lessen the home owner's enjoyment of the pool.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a manually operated pool cleaner for cleaning the bottom of a pool that is inexpensive to manufacture and operate, that is not affected by unpredictable water pressure changes, and that does not require the cumbersome and inconvenient use of any hose.